Be It Ever So Messy, There's No Place Like Home: The "Adventures" of a 50-Something Southern California Mom - who used to be interesting... and her teenage daughter.

December 2007

December 31, 2007

It's that time again - to reflect on the year just passed and think about actions to take for the next 365 days.

Last January, I wrote this:

The last several years, I've only had two resolutions:

Take better care of my family

Take better care of myself

The actions I vowed to take to fulfill those resolutions were simple. For item #1, I vowed to do a better job of managing our family's finances and to spend more time cooking them healthy meals.

For item #2, I embarked on a diet and exercise program. I bought that month's popular diet book and made an effort to walk a mile each day after dropping my daughter off at school.

By February, those simple plans had been abandoned. The cooking came to an end at the point that my daughter's gymnastics once again took over our evenings. And the walking stopped as I got busier with my blogging activities (which, in 2007, started becoming more than a hobby by providing me with income that's replaced what I earned at the part time school job I'd given up the previous spring).

As for the diet -- well, I never even finished reading the book.

So I am amused and still a little bit surprised that on the last day of 2007, I am sitting at my sister's home weighing 45 pounds less. Midway through the year, I had a health scare when a friend of mine ended up in the hospital with a condition that could easily happen to me.

I plunked down my hard-earned money to pay for a weight loss program at a local clinic. I've been dieting, exercising and trying to change my lifestyle.

This has wreaked havoc on Resolution #1. In the process of taking care of myself, I have spent a fortune in doctor and dental bills, as well as the diet program and related expenses like a health club membership.

I'm trying not to think about that, because for the first time in years, I really am taking care of myself. And my family is grateful.

And I'm reminded that life is an unpredictable adventure. It's all right to make plans, but probably better not to spend TOO much time doing so, because you don't really know what's coming down the road.

And that's OK. Maybe even part of the fun.

I wish all my friends, readers and family a wonderful 2008, full of health, wealth and most important, LOVE.

December 28, 2007

As an emeritus member of the WGA, I receive daily emails from the Guild leadership regarding the strike. This one just came in:

To Our Fellow Members,

We are writing to let you know that have reached a contract with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company that puts his show and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson back on the air with Guild writers. This agreement is a positive step forward in our effort to reach an industry-wide contract. While we know that these deals put only a small number of writers back to work, three strategic imperatives have led us to conclude that this deal, and similar potential deals, are beneficial to our overall negotiating efforts.

First, the AMPTP has not yet been a productive avenue for an agreement. As a result, we are seeking deals with individual signatories. The Worldwide Pants deal is the first. We hope it will encourage other companies, especially large employers, to seek and reach agreements with us. Companies who have a WGA deal and Guild writers will have a clear advantage. Companies that do not will increasingly find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Indeed, such a disadvantage could cost competing networks tens of millions in refunds to advertisers.

Second, this is a full and binding agreement. Worldwide Pants is agreeing to the full MBA, including the new media proposals we have been unable to make progress on at the big bargaining table. This demonstrates the integrity and affordability of our proposals. There are no shortcuts in this deal. Worldwide Pants has accepted the very same proposals that the Guild was prepared to present to the media conglomerates when they walked out of negotiations on December 7.

Finally, while our preference is an industry-wide deal, we will take partial steps if those will lead to the complete deal. We regret that all of us cannot yet return to work. We especially regret that other late night writers cannot return to work along with the Worldwide Pants employees. But the conclusion of your leadership is that getting some writers back to work under the Guild’s proposed terms speeds up the return to work of all writers.

Side-by-side with this agreement, and any others that we reach, are our ongoing strike strategies. In the case of late-night shows, our strike pressure will be intense and essential in directing political and SAG-member guests to Letterman and Ferguson rather than to struck talk shows. At this time, picket lines at venues such as NBC (both Burbank and Rockefeller Center, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and the Golden Globes are essential. Outreach to advertisers and investors will intensify in the days ahead and writers will continue to develop new media content itself to advance our position.

We must continue to push on all fronts to remind the conglomerates each and every day that we are committed to a fair deal for writers and the industry.

December 27, 2007

This was the view outside our window this morning at the Hotel Park City, where we are staying with our friends, Tim and Debbie.

I've been looking forward to this trip in the middle of our family holiday. It's not that I don't love being with my family (because I DO) -- but it has been a while since my husband, daughter and I have been away from home WITHOUT family obligations. My husband and daughter have been looking forward to getting out on the slopes. And I've been looking forward to having some quiet time to myself while they're out there.

The only problem is that by the time I've been able to get away and come here, I've nothing to say. I could talk about our Christmas (nice and uneventful, thank you) or our flight over here (stressful due to weather-related delays), or how funny my husband and daughter are when they fight over what is appropriate to wear in sub-freezing temps (I don't have to fight about it -- you aren't going to find my out there!)... but I had too many margaritas in the Baja Cantina to think clearly... and am too relaxed after my spa pedicure to care.

Perhaps tomorrow, I'll be coherent enough to offer a good report on this lovely resort in the winter. In the meantime, here are some more photos:

December 23, 2007

Friday was husband's last day at work until the New Year, and he came home with an early Christmas gift for me: the Blackberry 8800 he has used at work for the last year. His company has switched carriers, and he was told that he could pass the old phone off to me.

So he spent much of yesterday trying to figure out how to unlock the thing (it was issued by Cingular) so I could switch in my SIM from T-Mobile. And then we had to upgrade our plan to include the new phone an update the software so it will work with a different service.

"We still have to get your email on there," he just said. "And then you have to choose a picture for your splash screen and a song for your ringtone."

This is my husband's idea of fun. Yes, we are both kind of geeky (just in different ways). It probably would not surprise you that we met online in a chatroom-- back in 1989, pre-World Wide Web, on a local BBS system. I think of us as pioneers in a brave, new, cybwerworld -- and proof that such liaisons can work.

So for the next few days, I'm going to be a bit preoccupied with the new toy as we get ready for Christmas. I'm hoping the BB will allow me to be more organized and better able to respond to emails and posts. But first, I need to learn how to use the damned thing.

At least, it will be something to keep me occupied on the road to Sacramento.